Tea Party Support, Racial Resentment and Evaluations of Obama: A Moderation Analysis

Research has ascertained that a peculiar feature of support for the Tea Party movement can be traced back to former President Barack Obama himself. Animosity toward Obama has been linked in turn to partisanship and racial resentment. However, whether or not support for the Tea Party acts as a moderator in shaping how racial resentment and party identification infuse negative evaluations of Obama has not yet been investigated. Using the 2012 American National Election Studies sample, we found that higher levels of Tea Party support strengthen the magnitude of the association of racial resentment with negative evaluations of Obama. Conversely, higher levels of Tea Party support reduced the association of party identification with evaluations of Obama. The results are discussed by emphasizing the role of Tea Party rhetoric in making more relevant the activation of racial resentment.